Cool cover, but the article wasn't exactly...on the money. It said that Asia (written in 1999) is in the midst of a love affair with cute Japanese culture despite Japan's former negative image around Asia as imperialistic and ruthless. It also made a lot of remarks about how Asia is anxious to put the past in the past and clings to cutesy things as a means of escapism. Bret, our on-call international studies specialist took issue with these comments, saying that people are not trying to turn to their childhoods where everything was innocent and cute, but rather, the Japanese culture of "kawaii" (cute) is pervasive in it's own right and people like it for what it is, end of story.
I will beg to differ. Only because Japan has eaten my best friend and refuses to give her back to me sooner!
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